[pct-l] Through Hiking as a job

[marmot marmot]

I am horrified.  Maybe there is an excuse but I can't think of one.  Remember the hikers who saved the dog north of Sierra city. This year I met some south bounders who went out of their way to find a home for a kitten found on the trail near. Burney Falls.  That is what is normal   In the past 20 years as a long distance hiker I've heard so many stories like these.  I am sorry for someone being so uncaring. Marmot

Sent from my iPhone

> On Oct 10, 2013, at 11:47 AM, "Danny Wormington" <dannywormington at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>     My wife and I recently hiked from Steven's Pass to Steheken.  It 
> was early September and before all this snow and terrible weather. We 
> only had three days of rain and miserable drizzle.  We met many through 
> hikers and they were very pleasant for the most part.  One hiker had 
> stopped briefly at Lake Sally Ann and when he passed us he said he 
> wished he could spend a zero day there but there was no time.  That was 
> when I realized that for most of these through hikers the hike is a 
> job.  It's as if they don't have any sick leave left so they have to 
> plug on and on.  They don't have time to stop and enjoy, they only have 
> a deadline to meet even if it means pushing the envelope.
>     At one point in the trail a huge tree lay across a switch back so 
> that you had to climb down a vertical slope to the trail   You had to 
> cling to slender tree roots, digging your toes into the soft, wet duff 
> to make your way down.  As my wife climbed  down, a tree root snapped 
> and she bounced to the trail below, laying on top of her pack like a 
> turtle on its back.  There was a through hiker who had just caught up 
> with us and  was waiting impatiently for us to finish our short descent 
> so that he could hurry on to meet his schedule.  Time was a-wasting.  
> When he got his chance he danced down the steep slope danced by my still 
> prone wife.  And hurried out of sight without a pause or a word.  Time 
> was a-wasting.  I checked my wife out, helped her to her feet and only 
> then did I begin to wonder what was so important about a through hike 
> that you didn't have time to help another hiker in distress.  Well, I 
> was there, so I guess that took the load off him, and his job was so 
> important that he didn't have time to slow down.
>     Just a thought.  Perhaps it is the same kind of thinking that drops 
> a hiker unwittingly into chest deep snow without warm clothes or enough 
> food.
>     It isn't really a job.
> 
> Danny
> 
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